3/03/2008

Beer Blogging - Anchor Brewing Liberty Ale

What's an evening without beer? I can use this one, because Hillary Clinton is on The Daily Show right now, and she's kind of annoying me. I turn on this show to watch interviews and comedy, not campaign commercials. Let's drink some beer.

Pour: the beer has a clear, golden color and a fluffy white head that sticks around for quite a while. It looks like there's quite a bit of carbonation.

Aroma: I'm a little stuffed up right now, so I might not be getting everything here. There are definitely hops present, smelling like pink grapefruit. There's also some very faint malt.

Taste: it tastes a lot different than it smells (which may be a function of my congestion). This is one of those beers that tastes as good out of a keg as it does out of the bottle; I know this because I just had this one out of my girlfriend's brother-in-law's keg a couple weeks ago. For all that the hops dominate the aroma they really stay out of the way in the flavor, giving the malts room to assert themselves and leading to a surprisingly complex beer. The first taste you get is honey, followed by a toasty malt for a really nice effect. The hops show up after that, and they don't taste as grapefruity as they smelled. They're more floral.

Rating: 8/10. It's not Anchor Steam, but it's a very well put together beer in the American Ale style. I am a big fan; if you like Fat Tire but wish it had some more hops, this beer would be right up your alley. Go get some.